Camera Talk

Brazile wrote:Phil buries the lede. CC-400? Welcome (back) to the club!

Really like Graham's crop. One of these days soon, I hope to get back to processing photos, but family stuff will have to wind down first.

Robert

CC-400 with a Wollensak 135mm f4.7 Raptar in a Rapax shutter. And a C2 roll film holder for 6x7 to get me started. Shutter is sticky, lens has coating damage, camera is missing a screw on the front standard, but you can't ask more from something that is the former property of the MIT Lincoln Lab.

I've still got my heavy duty tripod, and there is a dark cloth around here somewhere (all else fails, I'll use my Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" banner). Got some sheet film holders from box lots I've bought, and a Schneider-Kreuznach 4x Lupe. The case came without dividers, so I'll have to fabricate a set of those. Looking to get at least two more lenses. I should be set to go by the time fall color season starts.

PF

Looking forward to seeing some results, PF! I have good friends who work at Lincoln Labs, though one of them just left to work on the Google self-driving car project. And a press lens to go with it, sure sounds like fun, despite the incidental infirmities.

I have a CC-400 also (my first LF camera) and it's clunky and big but sturdy and can do just about anything, just a workhorse. Mine came with a Caltar (Calumet house-branded Schneider, as I recall) 150 that had a cranky but functional shutter. Perfectly usable though. Later got a Schneider 90/6.8 (now on the Travelwide) for and a Caltar 215/6.3 that's a copy of Kodak's Commercial Ektar and is a good long-normal for portraits and some kinds of landscape. The kit stood me well until I mostly figured out what I was doing...then a few other lenses followed me home...

A dark cloth with the Dark Side of the Moon cover printed on it would be super cool, too. Maybe something like that would persuade Scott not to abandon LF and film completely, hey Scott?

Robert

Last night I finally got the camera I was looking for: Crown Graphic Special. I have a special place in my mind for this particular model because it was what I sold in the Big Survival Auction (I had traded a beat-up Pacemaker earlier). There is one in a local antique shop that the owner is asking $495 for, but I got a chance to check it out, and it has some problems such as the shutter release cable is smashed to uselessness. The one I won at auction is only half that with shipping, and it comes with film holders, flash, case, and a bunch of other stuff that is hard to see in the photos. Will be good for a field camera.

PF

PFMcFarland wrote:Last night I finally got the camera I was looking for: Crown Graphic Special.
PF

Nice going. I too have a special fondness for the Crown Graphic.

Congrats! I've always enjoyed mine. If the flash is the usual flash holder, that's worth what you paid for the whole kit because of its connection to Star Wars (!). But it's good to keep the stuff together if you can...

Robert

Graham - I put a scan in Dropbox, let me know if it works.

We just got back form the Jersey shore yesterday. I took the Spotmatic and 50/1.4 Takumar. Had a blast shooting it, doubt I'll ever finish the roll or develop and scan. I should have taken the 70D and the adapter to use the Tak on it. Just where I'm at. Manipulating film, right now at least, seems like a chore.

That said, I was driving around with Maddie last night and there are definitely some projects I have in my head that I'd rather do on LF film than digital, for no discernible reason. Color slide film at that. So never say die.

My darkcloth is an REI fleece jacket that kills light better than anything I've ever used. I have wanted to have my wife sew me a proper darkcloth for years. Just never got around to it. But a Floyd one wouldn't work for me. As he's aged, David Gilmore has morphed into my dad's doppelganger. Very off-putting...

You're supposed to listen to David, not look at him.

Robert

If I had DG's talent, I wouldn't care much what I looked like.

PF

Graham's edit:
img511 by Scott, on Flickr

I really need to improve my CS5-foo...

I would say it deserves wall space........